1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to article handling, and more particularly to apparatus for loading articles into containers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various kinds of machinery have been developed to load articles into containers. A particularly important application of article loading concerns the loading of plastic beverage bottles into open top containers. Handling filled thin-wall plastic bottles, commonly referred to as PET bottles, is a difficult task. The filled bottles are heavy and unstable. The thin flexible walls make the bottles very pliable and resilient, so they tend to bounce around when contacted by handling equipment or other bottles. In short, PET bottles are difficult to control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,345 describes a case loader that reliably loads open top containers with complements of PET bottles on a high speed basis. It has been found desirable to incorporate the mechanisms for forming the complements directly into the container loading apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,345 describes article handling apparatus that includes an article grouper in the form of chains and lugs that travel in generally horizontal planes. While the grouper of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,345 patent is generally satisfactory, it requires somewhat more time than is desirable to convert the system to handle bottles of different sizes.
Thus, a need exists for improved machinery for grouping articles and loading them into open containers.